This invention relates generally to the incorporation of yeast or yeast saturated with vegetable oil into batter, breading and meat-filler flour-based products. More specifically, by the incorporation of the yeast protein containing material into the aforementioned flour-based products, products having improved nutritional value, improved flavor and other improvements in properties are obtained.
Presently, there is much attention being directed toward the development of new sources of proteinaceous material which can be incorporated in flour-based products to improve their processibility. In this connection, the food industry for many years has been looking for an ingredient which could correct the damage incurred by products during processing procedures such as freezing and retorting. In these processing procedures fried goods and other products with high flour content have a tendency to gelatinize or become brittle. Moreover, when high concentrations of flour products (fillers) are added to meat products a starchy flavor and appearance results. In the past, soy flour has been added to flour products. However, the addition of soy flour intensifies the starch flavor. A stable brown color is desired in fried foods. However, the caramel color normally produced in fried foods is not stable unless paprika is used in the flour-based product. The problem here is that the use of paprika is expensive. Additionally, the fried foods industry has converted a puffed batter which requires the use of chemicals such as baking soda and glucono-delta-lactone. The use of these chemicals creates inventory problems and, with the trend toward natural foods, would give rise to difficulties in labeling. Finally, adhesion of batter has always been a problem in fried foods. Surprisingly, it has been found that the addition of yeast or yeast saturated with vegetable oil at a level of 3 to 10 percent helps to alleviate these problems.